At Close Quarters
by irisis
Summary: B'Elanna Torres and Kira Nerys meet as young women.


B'Elanna Torres and Kira Nerys meet as young women.

This story was written by Mr Irisis as a birthday present - he gave me his permission to share it here.

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><p>"Let me tell you a story."<p>

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><p>"Just because I'd never told you about it, didn't mean I hadn't tried it."<p>

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><p>It all happened a short time after I'd quit the Academy.<p>

I was at a bit of a loose end and I was working as Assistant Engineer on a cargo ship. It was a crummy job to start with - the crew were a pretty sleazy bunch, but after an early brief encounter with Ga'leck, the lecherous Ledger Keeper, no-one gave me any bother, especially when they saw what I did to his face. Anyway, I kept my head down and we were doing straightforward cargo runs around the demilitarised zone - nothing dodgy like the Xepolites or the Lissepians, but profitable just the same, and as good a place as any for me to spend some time sulking after the Academy.

We'd travelled from Klaestron IV with a cargo of medical supplies and were unloading at an occupied colony on Bajor VIII. Usually I stayed on the ship to tinker with the engines, but we were short-handed on that run, and you know how the Cardassians never opt for an automated system when they could use people, preferably slave-labour, to do a job less efficiently. So I pitched in, and between the crew and half a dozen random Bajorans who'd been roped in, we were making good progress. We stopped for a few minutes to catch our breath and I saw Ga'leck was trying it on with one of the Bajoran girls. He thought no-one was watching and grabbed this slip of a girl by the throat. He dragged her round the back of a cargo pod and I knew what was going to happen, so I ran to help her, only to find she didn't need any help; she'd stuck a knife in his belly and he was bleeding out on the floor. I knelt down instinctively, a second before a Cardassian guard came around the corner.

Well, to cut a long story short, with his dying breath Ga'leck named us both as his murderers. We were carted off to a prison block, probably to be tried and -"

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><p>"- Hey! B'Elanna, this is all very interesting, but when do we get to the bit where - you know! - you..."<p>

"Tom Paris, your mind is like a dirty schoolboy. I'm telling you the story of why I hate Cardassians so much - well, one of the reasons why - and all you can think about is one of the minor details!"

"It isn't so minor to me."

B'Elanna raised her eyebrows in mock contempt. "Well, perhaps not so minor, but you asked me to tell you all about it and I'm going to..."

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><p>We didn't say a word to each other for the first hour. Just stayed at opposite ends of the cell, her with her head in her hands and me pacing up and down the tiny space.<p>

I broke first.

"I'm B'Elanna. B'Elanna Torres."

"Kira." She barely moved as she spoke, just looking up fractionally, and I realised she was older than I had realised; several years older than I was. "I would say I was sorry you got dragged into this, but you chose your own fate."

"Hey! I was trying to help you - Ga'leck was going to assault you!" I protested.

"I can look after myself, as you know by now, but that wasn't what I meant. You chose to work for the Cardassians. You deserve everything you get."

The gloomy cell was lit by a cold fluorescent overhead, filling the stuffy room. Cardassian jails were designed for the comfort of the guards, not the prisoners, including the atmospheric controls. God knows how hot it must have been in the other cells, where dozens of prisoners were crammed into cells barely big enough to lie down in. We were lucky, if you can call it that.

"I don't work for the Cardassians! We're an independent ship, carrying medical supplies."

"Well, you do their bidding, that's bad enough in my book."

I sat on the bench next to her. "Look, Kira, I don't know why you're so angry. I tried to help you. You could at least tell them it was you that killed him."

She sighed. "There's no point. They won't take the word of a Bajoran over the dying testimony of an alien trade-partner. But you've right, you did try to help me. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry you got dragged into it. Even if you are shipping the Cardassians supplies, you don't deserve to die tomorrow."

I jumped up. "Die? Tomorrow?"

"Cardassian justice is swift, if not particularly just."

I was about to launch into a self-pitying tirade when I heard a door swish in the corridor. Two Cardassians could be heard walking towards us, the other side of the cell forcefield.

"Ah, Mekar, I see we've drawn night shift together again."

"Yes, Gudak, but what fun will it be with that new Gul in charge of security. No more... fraternising with the prisoners? A particular shame, especially with such as these."

The two Cardassians paused outside our cell, Gudak leering at us as he spoke, apparently unaware or uncaring that we could hear every word. "Gul Deler is a stickler for the rules," added Mekar.

"He is. But these two aren't long for this world - who would know?"

"I wouldn't want to take the chance. I heard what Deler did to Glinn Sharak. How did he even know that the fool had been singing satirical songs in the shower?" asked Mekar.

"You're right. He is a stickler for the rules. No fraternising with the condemned. But we could entertain ourselves some other way, so long as we don't actually touch them," smiled Gudak to his comrade. He turned back to us with a sneer. "Strip!"

I was rooted to the spot. I wasn't so naive that I didn't know what they were talking about, but if they weren't going to rape us, then what did they want? Kira, meanwhile, set her jaw and spat at the Cardassians, setting off a little fizzle where her saliva met the forcefield. That was all the provocation they needed. The field came down and one of the Cardassians struck Kira in the face with his weapon. She went down, hard, and I rushed at him, only to find a disruptor rifle jammed against my neck.

Gudak lifted Kira to her feet by her rich auburn hair. "Strip, or your Klingon friend gets shot while trying to escape."

Kira looked at me. She knew we'd both be dead in the morning, but the urge to stay alive a little longer is strong; she paused, and then began to remove her tunic, then her shorts and shoes. She was a good-looking woman, athletic, strong - did you know Bajorans are built stronger than humans? - and she stood so proud, tall, defiant in front of these bullies.

"All of it," barked Gudak. Kira reached down and pulled her white shirt over her head. It was strange; she looked very well endowed with her clothes on, but her breasts were quite small. Finally she slipped a thumb under the waistline of her white cotton panties and dropped them to the floor. She was the first Bajoran woman - actually, the first woman full stop - I'd seen naked since I'd reached sexual maturity. I thought she was attractive, before you ask, though obviously I was more worried about the disruptor in my face than enjoying the view. As soon as she finished Gudak stuck his gun in her belly and turned to me, barking the same command at me: "Strip."

So I did.

Soon I was standing in that stuffy cell, bare as the day I was born, and the look on the Cardassian's faces; I've never seen anyone salivate so much, not even you, Tom. I'm not sure what it was - I think perhaps the way my chest ridges work around my breasts bore some kind of resemblance to the Cardassian ideal or something. But their jaws pretty much hit the floor. Both of them stood back and stared, open-mouthed, at my body.

Kira took her chance; she lunged at Gudak while he was gawping at me, but he gathered himself just in time and smacked her once again, sending her sprawling into the back wall of the cell. Mekar was barely paying attention, his hands drifting towards my chest, when his colleague slapped his hands down. "Don't be a fool!" Gudak shouted. He dragged his colleague back out of the cell they stood, their guns pointed at us. "Enough! You will sexually pleasure her, for our entertainment. Do make sure you play with her ridges..."

Our eyes met. After a moment Kira stepped towards me. "Sorry," she whispered, as she came close to kiss me.

"Don't be," I murmured back. Her lips brushed mine and as she went to kiss me everything seemed to explode. Literally. A bomb had been set off, or a series of them; the two Cardassian guards were thrown to the floor, but we were a little further back and held on to each other for support.

Kira grabbed my hand and run.

"Our clothes!" I called out as we raced down the corridor.

"No time!" she shouted as we ran towards our freedom, and I saw that she was right; a light was flashing above the metal outer doors, which were slowly closing.

What Kira knew, and I did not, was that high-security Cardassian installations in the Bajor system were all fitted with poison gas emitters that automatically triggered in the event of a serious security breach. There was just a few seconds leeway for any Cardassian security staff present to leave. They soon removed that little safety loophole after our escape, or so I heard.

So we made it through the doors with bare seconds to spare, but we were hardly in a great position: on a planet filled with enemies, a terrorist attack having just taken place right where we were, naked as the day we were born. There was smoke, fire, another explosion somewhere nearby, Cardassian security swarming about and people screaming, but in the confusion no-one paid us any attention and I found myself dragged around the back of the building and into a yard.

I looked around and realised we were in the crematorium, where they disposed of Bajoran prisoners, slaves or criminals when they'd been executed, or more often just worked to death. Kira was examining a stack of metal drawers like you see in a mortuary, looking for something.

"Here!" she said, and one of the drawers opened with a hiss. "Get in."

I paused, but only for a second. A shout gave warning that someone was heading our way. I gritted my teeth, climbed in and was more than a little shocked when Kira climbed in after me. Here and there her body was against mine, though we were each pressed against the cold metal sides.

Then there was movement; suddenly our compartment slid beneath us and it went dark. For several minutes the only sound was of our laboured breathing, exhausted from running, and the pounding of my own chest in my ears, mixing, perhaps, with the pounding of blood in her veins where our bodies met.

"What the hell is going on?" I demanded, but she pressed a finger over my lips and leaned forwards to whisper in my ear.

"In theory this one is sound-proofed, but I don't plan on testing that," Kira breathed in my ear. "We're in a resistance bolt-hole. I hope whoever set off those bombs has made it to a similar location."

"You're in the resistance?" I hissed.

"I'd have thought that was pretty obvious by now," Kira hissed back, but there was a gentle giggle in her tone, teasing me.

"And yet you decided to trust me, a collaborator?"

"You aren't a collaborator. You aren't even a Bajoran. This isn't your fight. I'm going to get you out of here as soon as I can."

We were still pressed against opposite sides of the compartment, but I was getting a cramp. I guess it showed. My eyes were beginning to accommodate to the dark, and I saw Kira let her body relax away from the edge, felt it softly rest against my own.

"Look, you can relax. I won't bite. Though I have heard that Klingons like that," she whispered.

"I'm not a Klingon!" I hissed. "Well. Only half." I inadvertently let out a small chuckle. Now was not the time to argue about my lineage. I relaxed my body, too, and felt our bare skin touch in several more places.

"Which half?" mouthed Kira into my ear. Her breath was on my neck and a shiver ran up my spine, across my ridges, across my breasts and down between my legs.

"Here and there," I whispered back, remembering the forced, brief kiss we had shared earlier.

Kira touched me, her hand on my side, at the top of my ass. "Here?" she asked, her lips closer to mine now. "Or there?" she added, her fingers tracing the curve of my hip, between my legs. Her touch was electric. I hadn't known many men at that point, and I'd never thought of females in that way, but the adrenalin was still pumping from the chase, and Kira, well, there's something about the Bajorans that smells almost sweet. I leaned in to kiss her, our lips brushing together, and then the taste as our tongues met was ecstasy.

She pressed her body against mine and I felt her fingers running through the hair on my sex, seeking me out, and I when they met my lips I knew I was already wet; incredibly, instantly aroused. The moment her fingers found my engorged clitoris, she paused in her kiss a moment and raised her eyebrows. I nuzzled against her, planting kisses on her face.

"Don't stop!" I begged, already enraptured by the new experience. Her fingers started their work again, tentatively.

"Sorry. I was just surprised," she breathed back at me. "I hadn't realised how... big... Klingon women were down there!"

I must have flinched, awkward at the reference to my Klingon nature.

"Don't worry, B'Elanna, I like it, its different. Different is good. Embrace who you are." With that she slid down and ran her tongue down and across my ridges, finding my nipples and tracing small circles around them.

"In that case," I murmured, "Do this harder."

I took her hand and showed her how to handle me down there: rougher, more vigorously, squeezing my clit and my lips and - well, you know, Tom! She must've taken the hint, but a little too far; she started to squeeze and mistreat my breasts, taking little nips with her teeth amidst the flicking of her tongue. Then she was back up, kissing me again, one hand driving me to orgasm between my legs, the other bruising my breasts, but the ache in my chest just intensified the pleasure building inside me. Unable to control myself I came, loudly, screaming, and Kira had to silence me with a kiss, her mouth smothering mine, until my spasms subsided.

We stared at each other a while after that, our lips still touching, while pleasure coursed through my body in waves.

"I - uh - I've never done that before," I said, eventually.

"I know," Kira smiled.

"I could..." I offered, my hand on her hip.

"Stop. You don't have to." Kira wore a serious expression. "I already forced you into that, I don't want you to feel obliged."

We were silent a few minutes and our predicament returned, unbidden, to my thoughts. "How do we get out of here?" I asked.

Kira smiled, breaking her serious demeanour. "The resistance will try to beam us out. They transport out the contents of our hide-holes once every 24 hours. Could be in two minutes, could be tomorrow."

I nodded. "You've very proud of the resistance, aren't you?"

"Of course. We're close to breaking the Cardassians. I know it. By next year, Bajor will be free. I can feel it. They've lost the stomach for the occupation."

She was lost in a moment, a dream of what may come. Of what did come, not long afterwards, though she didn't know it then.

"So we have a little time to kill?" I ventured, my hand tracing the line from her slim, curved ass, up the side of her belly to the small curve of her breast. The air in the container was stifling, filled with the odour of two women from very different parts of the galaxy, but I've never been so turned on. Except since I met you, of course. Don't be jealous! Ha! Men...

We kissed again after a moment. I caressed her, my hands on her small breasts, stroking her nipples under my thumb as our lips met and our tongues danced. My hand wandered back down her toned body and towards her sex; she was totally bare, hairless, it was so different to anything I'd felt before. My fingers traced her pussy: the tiny button of her clit and her delicate lips feeling fragile compared to the engorged furnace between my legs. I briefly felt the wet inside her lips, then started to rub her, more gently than I'd rub myself, but she tensed, and a second later her hands was there, showing me the feather-soft touch that she needed.

As the rhythm built, I saw her face flush a little in the gloom, and then she was kissing me passionately again, her hand back between my legs and I was there again in seconds, though it was difficult to caress her delicate little flower at the same time as she ravaged me, and then I knew I was coming again, and she smothered my mouth with hers once more, and then I felt her body buckle as she came, pressing her tender parts against my fingers, our hot, perspiring flesh pressed into one another and we were one, for a moment, twisting together as we came, our bodies tingling.

We held each other for a moment, and then I opened my eyes. A Bajoran man stood over us, beaming with voyeuristic delight. I guess I hadn't noticed the transport, and neither had Kira, though she leaped to her feet and gave the man such a tongue-lashing he must have been scared to even remember what he'd seen, never mind tell another soul about it...

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><p>"In fact, Tom, you may be the only person I've ever told."<p>

I sat up in bed, aroused and impressed. "So, when we get back to the Alpha Quadrant... you fancy stopping by Bajor?"

B'Elanna slapped me, and then the slap turned into a growl, and one thing led to another.

We haven't spoken of it since.

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><p>"Come on Tom, you can't expect me to believe that," cried Harry, sinking his sixth synthale of their 'lad's evening out' as they sat in a holodeck bar that Paris claimed was an exact replica or some famous old pub in Boston.<p>

"Every word was true, my friend," grinned Tom, signalling for another drink from the holographic bartender.

"But... if it's true... and that's a big if, aren't you worried about telling me? It all sounded kind of personal. And B'Elanna is one scary woman." Kim shuddered as he recalled the times she'd bawled him out for some minor mistake, or, from time to time, hit him.

"She is that. One amazing, scary woman. But you're almost physically incapable of speaking in a personal capacity to women at the best of times, Harry. I think my secret is safe."

Paris ducked as Kim threw a beer mat at his head.


End file.
